Salient Aspects of Software Professionals’ Performance Context: A Qualitative Study
Given the knowledge-intensive performance context, software services organizations heavily rely on employee performance. As these organizations desire and expect high performance, perhaps it is equally important to focus on the context in which the software professionals work, perform and deliver results. This research is an attempt to explore and understand the performance context and its salient aspects. Semi-structured in-depth interviews ( N = 44) were conducted with experienced software professionals of five Indian software organizations to understand the software services work set-up, how it shapes their performance context and its underlying challenges. Interview data was analyzed to examine patterns, clusters and common themes. Responses clustered around four facets–project-based work set-up, client involvement, team-related dependencies and nature of work. Specific issues within these facets are discussed in terms of the challenges faced by employees in the software industry, the managerial interventions required and the potential of this area for further research.